VWCC News

This article was originally published on 08/22/2011.
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Virginia Western goes green with new campus printing system

ROANOKE — Virginia Western Community College announces a new campus printing system called WEPA (Wireless Everywhere Print Anywhere) that will be available when students begin the Fall Semester on Monday. The new WEPA printing kiosks are being implemented as a way to reduce the college’s paper waste and save money on printing.

Virginia Western’s Sustainability Committee made the recommendation that the college reduce its consumption of paper. Last year, the number of printed sheets of paper increased to 4.2 million, costing the college around $26,000 on paper alone. Much of the paper used was from unwanted or unnecessary print jobs.

The college has partnered with WEPA to address this problem. WEPA provides all students, faculty and staff with the ability to upload their electronic documents from any location, even at home, and conveniently print those documents at one of 13 WEPA printing kiosk on campus. Users can also print documents directly from a USB drive or even a smartphone. Documents are stored in the WEPA system and released when users sign in at a kiosk. The kiosks only print what users want from their queue, so there is no wasted paper on mistake prints.

Users will be charged 10 cents per black and white print and 50 cents per color print, and duplex printing is encouraged to save paper. It marks the first time color printing has been widely available to students at Virginia Western. Payment can be made by credit or debit cards at the kiosks, through an online account or in cash by purchasing a WEPA card at the Virginia Western bookstore.

WEPA provides the kiosks to the college free of charge, and performs servicing and maintenance. Virginia Western expects a significant reduction in budgetary costs related to printers and upkeep around campus. As part of the initiative, WEPA will hire 3-5 student workers throughout the semester to ensure that the kiosks are stocked with paper, toner and are operating properly.